Are scintigrams of the spine useful in vertebral osteoporosis?

To determine whether technetium diphosphonate scintigraphy could be used to date vertebral crush fractures, serial scintigrams and radiographs were obtained on two groups of 27 osteoporotic patients. Although radiologically crushed vertebrae were significantly associated with areas of increased isotope uptake on the scintigrams (p less than 0.001), this did not depend on the age of the crush fracture. Some radiologically uncrushed vertebrae, particularly in the lumbar spine, also showed increased isotope uptake.